Inspectors general: The EPA is being actively uncooperative with and dismissive of our investigations

posted at 6:31 pm on May 6, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

Remember the bizarre case of John C. Beale? Last year, it was finally revealed that the former high-level Environmental Protection Agency employee managed to defraud the federal government of almost a million dollars over the course of twelve years while doing almost no work, and then excusing his many absences by claiming that he was jetting off on secret climate-change-related business in conjunction with the CIA, followed by a fake retirement party. Much to the EPA’s chagrin, federal watchdogs were not filled with confidence in either our sprawling bureaucracy generally or the EPA’s power-grabbing/obfuscating tendencies specifically, and began an investigation into the lack of internal controls that allowed the guy to fly under the radar for so long; then in February, the EPA inspector general wrote a letter to Sen. David Vitter informing him that several EPA employees were actively getting in the way of the IG’s investigations thereof. This afternoon, the Associated Press just dropped another bomb on those inauspicious EPA activities:

A unit run by President Barack Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years, a top investigator says.

The assistant EPA inspector general for investigations, Patrick Sullivan, was expected to testify Wednesday before a House oversight committee about the activities of the EPA’s little-known Office of Homeland Security. The office is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s chief of staff, and the inspector general’s office is accusing it of impeding independent investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats, including compelling employees involved in cases to sign non-disclosure agreements.

“Under the heavy cloak of `national security,’ the Office of Homeland Security has repeatedly rebuffed and refused to cooperate with the OIG’s ongoing requests for information or cooperation,” Sullivan wrote in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press. “This block unquestionably has hamstrung the Office of Inspector General’s ability to carry out its statutory mandate to investigate wrongdoing of EPA employees.” …

EPA’s Office of Homeland Security was set up in 2003 by an administrative order, and has no statutory authority to conduct investigations or enforce the law. But since July 2012, in an agreement with the FBI, it has been the primary contact on all investigations with a connection to national security.

Hmm — this EPA office secretively operates by using the heavy cloak of “national security” as its justification? Is that kind of like how John C. Beale used the cloak of national security as a justification, do you suppose? They already have the oh-so-convenient justifications of the “public health” and “environmental protection” to excuse their every whim; how many more can they possibly need if, as they claim, they really aren’t up to anything untoward?

Funny how the self-proclaimed Most Transparent Administration, Evah seems so averse to scrutiny — particularly the zealously environmentalist agency currently marshaling as much authority to itself as it can muster for the sake of almost singlehandedly executing President Obama’s costly and ideological climate change agenda via top-down regulations executive orders.

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This is disgusting – there is no accountability any where. The whole thing is going to implode and there will be freaking chaos. It might not happen today or tomorrow but it will happen. An election wont stop it either. The corruption is imbedded in the whole system.

A unit run by President Barack Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years, a top investigator says.

President Barack Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years,

We are being pillaged and plundered, and it will not stop until obama is out of office, at the earliest.

GaltBlvnAtty on May 6, 2014 at 6:48 PM

It won’t stop then either. There is no one on the scene today that has the guts or support to do the right thing to restore fiscal sanity in this country. TPTB are in it for the final loot before the whole charade goes **** up. If we aren’t going to sacrifice our sacred blood and treasure to stop it now, then we might as well lay back and try to enjoy it.

We are being pillaged and plundered, and it will not stop until obama is out of office, at the earliest.

GaltBlvnAtty on May 6, 2014 at 6:48 PM

Dont be a partisan hack who is blinded by the “them versus us” nonsense. This isnt about the politics anymore, it’s about the government – regardless – party. It’s how the system now works. These bureaucracies become their own entity that hungers for more and more funding so it can grow and grow thus increasing its power.

Cut their GD budget! I’m sick of hearing the GOP whine about the EPA yet take no action whatsoever to rein them in. Last time I checked, the GOP controlled the House and therefore the federal budget.

I read on Daily Caller some time last year that fully 50% of the EPA’s budget was doled out to environmental and other groups as grants. Seems to me they could use a haircut. I’d look closely at the budgets of the BLM, Dept. of Interior, Fisheries, etc. and any division that has a hand in managing our environment. They are using their budgets, aka our money, against us.

The EPA is a rogue agency now. They are threatening and intimidating industry and it’s being ignored by the press. EPA enforcement division has been equipped with military weaponry, body armor, and armored vehicles. Evidently it’s pretty nasty business being the protector of Gaia…

This is the problem with direct election of senators. The senate should be appointed by state legislators and if they give all this authority to the EPA or then they’ll just be removed.

This really is a massive bureaucracy, these senators vote to delegate all this authority, so if you’re voting for a senator and then they are voting to delegate massive authority to the EPA, there’s a huge disconnect.

The actions of the EPA scream for a switch to ” advisory” status. Congress needs to take away its power which would hopefully shrink the size of agency and therefore the opportunity for corruption. It would also throw the needs of human beings back into the decision making process.

The “department of homeland security’s” budget totals since its inception is now well over 1 trillion dollars. (Thought I would throw that in cause it rarely gets mentioned… Pretty big tab for airport molestation and epa info swat teams…)

But they’re being uncooperative for the “greater good,” to derail our industry and stop a small amount of carbon emissions. No bother that China has increased its CO2 emissions by something like 10x in the last decade, and Russia isn’t far behind. Yeah, let’s hamstring our own industry to stop a fifth of a percent of our carbon emissions, while our possible enemies race forward and build vibrant economies.

If I happened to be a squawking Chicken Little I would say: you guys are making a big deal about “normal” amounts of Arctic ice? Like normal is a “significant story.” Like it signifies plummeting temperatures and the onset of a new ice age? Seriously, normal? We’ve had very low levels of Arctic ice and once this little bit of normal blows over we will go back to being ice free again like we predicted for 2013. And if not, so what, we look elsewhere, like to Antarctica, or well then to U.S. temperatures, or to skyrocketing global temperatures over the last 20 years, or er to our climate models, or er um, uhm, to whatever it is, the media will report our story, and the little people will believe. Like you guys think that the people are going to be all freaked out about “normal” levels of ice. Not! That won’t scare anyone! (/s)

A unit run by President Barack Obama’s political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA’s inspector general for years, a top investigator says.

Yeah, let’s hamstring our own industry to stop a fifth of a percent of our carbon emissions, while our possible enemies of China and Russia race forward and build vibrant economies.

And they will defeat us, or marginalize us. And then it won’t be about our effete intellectual superiors dictating to us that we stop a minuscule amount of our own CO2 emissions. No, we will be controlled by others that don’t give a flying leap about that.

Inspectors general: The EPA is being actively uncooperative with and dismissive of our investigations

LOL…”We don’t have to answer to nobody no how…go Fluke yourselves.”

And I guarantee you that the vast majority of Obama voting sycophants aren’t even vaguely aware of this story. But, even if they were, the truly sad thing (more so than being low information, Libtard sheeple) is that they would still manage to defend El Supremo…and when logic fails and they have no evidence in His defense, they will resort to emotion and charges of racism.

We’re not talking about the EPA protecting just the US or just the entire world, but rather we are talking about the EPA protecting the entire solar system (there have been reports of GOREbal Warming on Mars and Uranus.

EPA’s Office of Homeland Security was set up in 2003 by an administrative order, and has no statutory authority to conduct investigations or enforce the law. But since July 2012, in an agreement with the FBI, it has been the primary contact on all investigations with a connection to national security.

Seriously?
That’s like using a Dept of Education agency to handle diplomatic affairs.
What were the steps leading to this travesty of organizational accountability?

On a related note, remove funding for arms, ammo for generally any government agency outside of Secret Service, CIA, FBI, Border Patrol, and the military. Aside from park rangers, if employees of any other agencies are going into harm’s way, they’re overstepping their charter. Need help conducting a raid? Call the FBI or local law enforcement.

Testimony before the U.S. House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee
May 7, 2014
Assault, Obstruction, and
Inaction by Agency Officials
Elisabeth Heller Drake
Special Agent, Office of Inspector General, U.S. EPA

Excerpts:

On Thursday, October 24, 2013, fellow EPA OIG Special Agent Ryan Smith and I had a difficult interview with EPA Office of Homeland Security (OHS) employee John Martin. We extended him the courtesy of having his personal attorney present, but he would not answer even basic questions.

At this time, Mr. Williams aggressively approached me, yelling “Put it in writing!” He stepped between me and Mr. Martin in a menacing way, again screaming to “Put it in writing!” and demanding to know where the standard protocol I was addressing was documented. Williams invaded my personal space, pointing and yelling, to a degree that it became difficult to understand what he was saying.He repeatedly jabbed his finger at me, merely inches from my chest, and as he got more aggressive, his complexion heated, his veins bulged, and he began to sweat profusely.

The fact I had a sidearm holstered out of sight under my suit jacket did not make any difference; I was not chasing a criminal on the street, but rather in an environment where I never would have expected such behavior from a professional staff member. Avoiding unnecessary physical contact, I stepped back from Mr. Williams.

In spite of my clear notice that I was a federal law enforcement officer, he again
started yelling at me. I thought back to my research and recalled that he was not only a GS-15, but also a Naval Reserves Captain, making his tirade and interference with my official duties all the more surprising.

Back at the OIG office, we reported the assault to management, leading other agents to return to the Office of Homeland Security to investigate. Martin had left; Ms. Dunham and Mr. Williams said they were too stressed to be interviewed.

Whether Mr. Williams attacked and intimidated me that evening because I am female and so felt he could get away with it, and whether he has acted in a threatening manner towards other females in the workplace, are questions for another time and place. I instead am here to relay what happened that night and EPA’s response to it out of concern about OIG not being allowed to do its job.

Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Cummings, we are now more than six months out from the events of October 24, yet I believe the investigation underway the day of the assault continues to go uninvestigated.

Elisabeth Heller Drake is a GS-13 Special Agent (Criminal Investigator) with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General, where she has
worked since January 2013. She also has worked as a Special Agent for the Offices of Inspector General of the Government Printing Office and the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to her time as a federal agent, she worked for four years as a Department of Defense, Defense Security Service background
investigator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice from George Mason University, where she was an honor student. In her seven years in federal law enforcement she twice has received a Special Act of Service Award for
her investigative work.